It's that time of year again, you think as you tug your sweater a little tighter around your shoulders and squint at the horizon as the sun slowly descends. In a matter of weeks, the leaves of the trees around you will start changing colors, and the crisp smell of winter will be hanging in the air. You feel a little unease, as you've been wandering deeper through the Haunted Woods and are now unsure that you want to be in this place after dark.

Your stomach rumbles, a reminder that you haven't had a bite to eat for hours. As if summoned from your hungry stomach, you turn a corner on the path you're following and come across a quaint cottage. It's almost as if pulled from a faerietale, the wooden planks making up the body of the house put together almost as if as an afterthought, and the thatched proof surrounding a squat brick chimney, which is lazily blowing smoke into the air. More importantly, the door is wide open, and the delicious smells wafting outside are drawing you in.

You step through the door and see a small brown aisha bustling around the small area. She stops in her tracks, her face reflecting a measure of surprise for a moment before hurrying (almost running toward you). She takes your hands in her paws, and pulls you further into the building.

"Sit, sit!" She exclaims, pushing you roughly into a chair. "My, you really shouldn't be wandering about after dark!" She tsks, then hurries away, not giving you enough time to explain that it's barely dusk and not yet dark.

After a moment she comes back, and thrusts a small pastry into your hand. It's still warm, and you bite into it greedily. The flavors explode in your mouth, and you groan appreciatively.

"That's delicious!" You say, "You are really very talented."

The aisha pauses for a moment and then laughs. "Oh, thank you, but I didn't make it! She did!"

You have to squint to see who the aisha is pointing at. At first you think she must be crazy. After all, a plushie can't bake!

"Oh, come on then!" The aisha says, her voice sounding amused, yet exasperated. "She's very shy, you know." She scoops the plushie spyder up and deposits it on your lap. You almost scream as it's eyes blink and it smiles up at you sheepishly.

"I apologize, I was taken aback. It's not often that Bonebread and I get visitors!" The plushie says. "My name is Spinderella, and I made the treat you're enjoying just now. Oh, Bonebread is a baker as well, but really if it weren't for me, she would have starved long ago."

It occurs to you that once you get her talking, Spinderella is really not shy at all.

"Though we were both born in the Haunted Woods, I spent some time learning from a group of travelling Cybunnies, who had trained with the chocolatier at the Chocolate Shop in Neopia central, and they taught me their ways before moving on. My family, being spyders, frowned upon such frivolity. They tried to make me haunt old mansions with them, and scare passersby. I just didn't have the heart for it, though. In the old mansions I would fire up the oven and find old ingredients to make delicious food that I would then share with the people who would walk by our nest. Oh, to see the joy on their faces when I shared by delights!

Finally, my parents had had enough, so they kicked me out of their nest before moving on. I searched for my family for months, until I happened upon Bonebread's cottage. Really, you should have seen the state of it. Trying to sell Iced Fish Cake, Tomato Cheesecake, Bonebread..."

"Well," she added, sending a quick smile at her friend. "The Bonebread wasn't bad. She gave it more practice, being that's what she was named after, I guess. But having to eat around the bones when trying to enjoy some scrumptious bread." She shook her head. "So I took over the kitchen, and really the entire family has been appreciative!"

Alarmed, you look around the cottage. There were more of them? How did they all fit into such a small space? Even with the three of you, it was awfully cramped.

"Oh, look at the time!" Spinderella exclaims, jumping off of you and onto the floor. "You really must go. After all, you shan't be out after dark! Just walk one hundred steps and take your first right. You'll be back home in no time."

Bonebread and Spinderella push you out the door in haste. In a daze, your stomach full of pastry and happy, you don't realize how odd it is they seem to have already known where you live until the next morning.

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